4 Prominent Republicans Dumping Trump This Week
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Donald Trump's latest controversy involving the Khan family hit a nerve with the GOP this week—and for some prominent members, it was the final straw.
On Monday, Jeb Bush’s top adviser, Sally Bradshaw, announced she was leaving the party. In her email, the Bush loyalist did not mince words when describing Donald Trump.
"[The GOP is] at a crossroads and [they] have nominated a total narcissist—a misogynist—a bigot,” Bradshaw told CNN.
"This is a time when country has to take priority over political parties. Donald Trump cannot be elected president," she said.
"If the race in Florida is close, I will vote for Hillary Clinton," said Bradshaw—now an independent.
On Tuesday, another top Republican, whose former boss is a major Trump backer, ditched the nominee.
"I'm voting for Hillary Clinton in November,” longtime Chris Christie aide Maria Comella said.
Blasting Trump on a number of issues, ultimately it was his inability “to show humility and empathy in the face of grieving parents” that caused Comella to cross party lines.
Meg Whitman also pledged support for the Democratic nominee Tuesday.
“I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her,” Ms. Whitman, a Hewlett-Packard executive and Republican fund-raiser, told the New York Times.
Having likened Trump to Hitler and Mussolini, Whitman warned Republicans that a dictatorship led by “a dishonest demagogue” could absolutely happen in America.
The same day, GOP Rep. Richard Hanna became the first sitting Republican congressman to endorse Clinton.
“I find Trump deeply flawed in endless ways,” Hanna wrote in his open letter titled “We should all be done with Donald Trump.”
Hanna, who represents New York's 22nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced his plans to retire from Congress last December. However, for GOP officials approaching an election, the decision to “dump Trump” is a bit tougher.
“You have Republicans who are just in a terrible position… If you condemn Donald Trump but still endorse him, by condemning Donald Trump, like Paul Ryan, you lose Trump supporters. If you are still endorsing him, then you lose the swing voters who are offended by the sort of things that he’s been saying over the past six months," Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" pointed out.
“10 states—including Wisconsin with Paul Ryan; Arizona with John McCain—still have Republican primaries coming up,” Mark Halperin, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics, added.
On the other hand, Trump isn’t even endorsing Ryan just yet.
